Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 2.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

The latter, therefore, completely barred against McDowell and Porter the road which Pope had indicated, when he ordered them to march upon Gainesville from Manassas, and even the possession of Groveton was no longer of any importance to them, since the enemy's army, which they had hoped to divide, was already reunited. Consequently, it was not long before Porter met Longstreet's line of battle drawn up across the railway track; he was forming his troops, whose long columns this discovery had taken by surprise, when he was joined by McDowell, his superior in rank, who was closely following him with King's division. Mc-Dowell asserts that he commanded Porter to attack; the latter has affirmed, on the contrary, that his chief ordered him not to move. However that may be, Porter deployed Morrell's troops in face of the enemy, massed those of Sykes in reserve, and finding it impossible to execute the movement which he had been ordered to make by Pope in the morning, waited for further instructions in the position where McDowell left him. The latter having rejoined Ricketts, who was returning from Thoroughfare Gap, found himself at last, about three o'clock, at the head of all his army corps; and renouncing the idea of following the direction which had been indicated to him, he proceeded toward Groveton, where the booming of cannon announced that the combat had been renewed with increased violence. Pope, in fact, who was not aware of Longstreet's presence, and still believed that he had only Jackson before him, imagined that it would be sufficient for McDowell and Porter to push forward to strike the right wing of the Confederates, and to fall upon their flank and rear. Consequently, between two and three o'clock, thinking that this manoeuvre must have been nearly accomplished, he ordered Hooker to attack the enemy in front. This gallant officer remarked to him that such an attack would stand very little chance of success. Hill had actually found in the railroad embankments a real parapet, behind which he could resist many assaults. Pope insisted; Grover's brigade charged with the bayonet, and penetrating between the Confederate brigades of Gregg and Thomas set foot on